Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Wednesday Wonders #3: Spirulina “Protein Queen”

Winter is here! We got about 10cm of snow this weekend, how exciting!
The mountains are beautifully covered in snow and the air is fresh and crisp. I
LOVE IT! Is it too early for Christmas movies? I’m not going to lie, I watched
one already! I have to get in the Holiday spirit to start working on all the
prezzies I am planning on making…

Today I want to talk about Spirulina. I actually don’t like it at all! I
mean, it tastes really bad. Ouch, I don’t know how I’m going to persuade you to
start taking it now. Haha! Ok let’s start over…

Spirulina is one of the greatest Superfoods!
It’s a microscopic blue green algae that can be found in many lakes and
waterways around the world. It’s also one of the oldest forms of life on earth
and has been contributing to the food chain development for thousands of years.
It provides the nutrients requirements for all life on earth. Pretty cool
right? But that’s not it…

The content of Spirulina is 65-75% protein and it contains all essential
amino acids which makes it a complete protein source. It's easily digestible
so your body can utilized the nutrients much faster and need a lot less energy
to do so. You know when it’s 2:00 in the afternoon and you just got back from
lunch? You dream about being in front of the TV wrapped in a blanket, or in bed
for a nice afternoon nap. I’ve been there, so often! Well, Spirulina will help you
skip that step and stay productive and focused all day! I can really tell that
I have way more energy the days I take Spirulina and when I skip it,I can definitely tell that I am not on my
game as much.

On top of being a great protein source, it also contains a lot of other
awesome nutrients like Vitamin A, B1, B2, B6, E, K, as much Iron as meat,
Chlorophyll, Beta-Carotene and many more. It’s a great immune system booster and
will do your hair and skin justice!

Some say that Spirulina might be the protein of the future, starting
from an industrial production of 100 tons/year in the 1970 to an expected 220 000 tons/year
by 2020. Other than its health benefits, its production is sustainable. It produces
two hundred times more protein per acre than beef! It also uses only 2% of the
water required for Beef production. Is this stuff too good to be true?

Well, here is the thing… It tastes really bad! But that’s not stopping
me from taking it every day! So I want to share with you my tips to make this a
better experience and make sure you get that awesome Superfood in your body
without even noticing the taste of it!

My friend takes it straight with water. I tried it one day and I thought
I was going to die! Lol So, don’t try that! The taste is just really bitter so
I found the best way to cancel it out is to mix it with lemon juice. For a
while I just took it like that every morning and it was great! Here is the formula.

Spirulina magic potion

-Juice of ½ Lemon

-1 tsp. Lemon
Zest

-1/8 cup
Water

-1tsp.
Spirulina

Just stir it
all up together in a glass until the powder is diluted. I like to use a dark
cup so I don’t know what is coming at me. If you see it you might not like it! Lol.
When it’s ready, just take a deep breath and try to shove it down your throat
as fast as you can without moving too much to make sure you don’t taste
anything. :) (As I am proofreading it sounds worse than it actually is!)

That being said, some people actually like the taste of it. I have books that
have all sorts of Spirulina recipes that I can’t even bring myself to look at
but if you like it, good for you! I got my friend to try it and the stories she
had about her first experience where hilarious! As long as you don’t decide to mix
it in a huge water bottle like she did, you should survive.

After a while I got tired of doing this in the morning (It takes to much time for me) so I decided I would just blend it in my smoothies and find a mix that
would kill the taste. So here it is,
the breakfast smoothie that will make your coworkers chuckle, because it’s
green. I am not going to show you a picture of a nice pink sweet smoothie
pretending it will look that way because it won’t. You know who else is green? The Hulk, and that’s how you’ll feel
like. Talk about a superhero potion…

1 Scoop Vega One Protein Powder (French Vanilla is the best flavour ever)

1 Tsp. Spirulina

1 Tsp. Agave Nectar

1 cup Mixed Greens (Could be
replaced by Spinach or Kale)

2 cups Almond Milk (Or enough to
give a nice texture)

Dash of Cinnamon

Add all the
ingredients in your blender (I use a Magic Bullet. It’s great to do single
portions and a lot less dishes!). Blend for 45 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer in
your favorite glass or to go mug and get ready for an awesome day!

1 comment:

I just finished creating an infographic that I think is a good fit for your readers on Vegan for 1.

It's called "7 Superfoods That Help You Live Longer." You can see it here.

I wanted to get in touch because while researching, I read this post you wrote about Superfoods, Wednesday Wonders #3: Spirulina “Protein Queen”, so I wanted to get in touch to see if you'd like to use my infographic, too.

I put HTML code that you can copy and paste below the image to make it easy to put on your site. If you'd like a different size, please let me know and I'll make it for you.